In the week which has seen the Western World slide even further into economic meltdown and French firm EDF taking over Britain’s struggling power network, the mobile industry has continued to shoot upwards as much as possible with quite a few announcements.

Firstly - the one everyone is talking about - the “Google Phone“. The phone will be exclusive to the T-Mobile network, and officially called the “T-Mobile G1 with Google“. Not the most exciting name ever, but most certainly an exciting handset. It is the first phone that will feature the long-awaited Google Android mobile platform. This hopes to do for mobiles what Linux has always wanted to do with computers - give developers a chance to use the phone’s Operating System code to better develop programs which work with the phone’s features seamlessly. Being a Google handset, the phone has a powerful international brand behind it (including lots of Google applications) and will hopefully be a good competitor to the iPhone. The phone will be released in time for Christmas. There’s already news emerging of future Android phones from other phone manufacturers (including Sony Ericsson), so keep your eyes out for those too.

Secondly, Nokia are expected to announce their first touch-screen phone, the “Nokia Tube” on Thursday, 2nd October at an event about their XpressMusic phones and music service.

This brings me nicely onto my next topic… MUSIC. Apple have, for many years now, been famous for the iPod. They broke out of that market, and into the phone market, with the iPhone. Nokia seem to be hitting back - by stepping into Apple iTunes territory. On 2nd September, Nokia launched the Nokia Music store. They aim to bundle the price of music with the price of a new phone. Then, over the space of a year and for a fixed fee, you will be able to download as many tracks as you like and keep them after the year is up.

Not wanting to miss out on all of the fun, Sony Ericsson have announced that they too are designing a new music store. This will be called “Sony Ericsson PlayNow plus“. We don’t expect to see the service in the UK until 2009. For a monthly fee, or “contract”, users will be able to download an unlimited number of tracks. The user will be allowed to keep 300 of these tracks once the contract expires.

In other iPhone competition news, Blackberry are to release the “Blackberry Storm” on the Vodafone network, “Sony Ericsson’s XPERIA X1” handset is due to be launced at the end of the month and The “LG Renoir” (which looks, aesthetically, quite similar to the iPhone) is tipped to be getting an 8 megapixel camera.

In other handset news, fashionable phones are abound with the new Samsung Armani NIGHT EFFECT Phone that I reported on last Monday and the LG Prada II which is rumoured to be available soon and will have a complete QWERTY keyboard.

There’s some more mobile phone news which - whilst it’s changing the way mobiles phones will/can be used in the future - isn’t quite as exciting as the new handsets. But still, I’ll press on with them.

Firstly, Ryanair are hoping to introduce the ability to have in-flight mobile calls. TheRegister say that Ryanair are just “weeks away” from providing this service. They say that we shouldn’t expect it on all Ryanair flights though, as only 14 of the firm’s 166 planes will be fitted with the necessary equipment. They also warn that not all networks have signed up to the scheme, that only 6 passengers at a time will be able to make a call and that calls could be charged at around £2 per minute. I won’t be using it myself…

And finally, financial services are now working on integrating their services into mobile phones. Visa are looking to design an application which will allow Android users (it’s great how all of these stories link up in the end) to find their nearest cash machine and check their bank balance on their phone. Again, we don’t expect to see it in the UK for some time as it’s being rolled out in the USA first. And on Wednesday, the BBC reported that Lloyds TSB will allow its customers to make transfers between Lloyds TSB accounts from their mobile phones next month. They say that people have been able to check things like bank balances for a while now, but this is the first time that money can actually be moved via the user’s phone. The BBC also say that the software to allow these transfers does already exist, but banks are rolling it out slowly to ensure that all security features are perfectly in place.

That’s the round up of the week. Thanks for looking.

Ducky

Samsung have today announced that, after more than more than a year’s work with Giorgio Armani, they are to release the “Emporio Armani Samsung Mobile” - also named “NIGHT EFFECT”. The phone is stylish, but not out-of-this-world. The name “Night Effect” is particularly fitting, as the phone lights up when the user makes or receives a call (as seen in the photo below). This will hopefully look great when out-and-about at night time.

Emporio Armani Samsung NIGHT EFFECT

The phone is “due to be released by the end of 2008″ - or, as I like to say, “just in time for Christmas”. The phone will carry a 3 megapixel camera, touchscreen, bluetooth, quad-band GSM (great for those who need to use it abroad), HSDPA and a MicroSD card. There’s rumours that it could carry Wi-Fi but these are unconfirmed. There’s still no word on pricing either.

Samsung have also launched the website for the new handset - ArmaniSamsungPhone.com

My most eagerly awaited phone of this year - the Sony XPERIA X1 - will have an official release date of 30th September 2008, confirms the Sony Ericsson Press office.

This is only in certain countries, the UK being one of them. The US will be waiting until a later date to get their hands on the phone.

Still no idea of price on this, though. I guess we’ll have to wait until the 30th to find that out, and hope that it drops in price rapidly after that.

In their Mobile Phone Blog, OFCOM have hit back at reports from the press which suggested that in their consultation OFCOM were suggesting that under new rules consumers could be charged to receive calls. OFCOM has dismissed these claims. OFCOM says that they want to “start a debate about the future of mobile termination charges”.

Termination charges are the charges which networks charge each other to connect calls to customers on their network. Currently these charges can be upto 6p, and OFCOM claims that this gets passed onto consumers in their call charges. They are exploring the idea of putting a maximum limit of 1p on these charges. OFCOM also point out that they aren’t the only people looking at these charges - the European Union has published similar reports on the topic recently too.

OFCOM’s report suggests of a few ways in which Networks could pass this 1p charge onto their consumers. One of the suggestions, which the media have picked up on, was that consumers could be charged to receive calls. In their blog post, OFCOM explain that whilst they can cap charges such as termination fees in order to make sure that the market stays competitive, they don’t currently control the prices that the networks charge or how they charge them. The prices are instead kept down by the networks’ desire to be competitively priced. For this very reason, it is unlikely that the networks would take on a pricing scheme such as charging people to receive calls. As we’ve seen in the press, it’s an unpopular idea - and taking on an unpopular idea as a part of a pricing strategy would only drive customers away from a network.

So, at the mercy of our networks, it seems that we should be able to keep away from being charged to receive calls.

Ducky

OFCOM have begun a consultation about the Mobile Phone market. Some of you may be interested in taking part.

The information about the consulationis here (most of the .pdf documents are very long-winded and somewhat boring): OFCOM Mobile Phone Consultation (August - November 2008)

You can respond online here: Respond to the OFCOM consultation online by 6th November 2008

When responding, make sure that you read and understand the “confidentiality” section. They want to publish responses, but you can tell them not to, or you can tell them to hide certain information (such as your name).

Consumers will be most interested in Sections 4 & 5. Section 4 is about “Consumers”, and they want to know of YOUR experiences with the mobile market. Section 5 is for “Citizens”, and they want your views on how the mobile phone industry is affecting society as a whole.

OFCOM are doing this study because they want to know which areas they need to regulate more firmly, and which areas they can loosen the regulations in. OFCOM say that this is an improtant area, as the number of mobile phone calls we make as a nation could outnumer the number of landline calls we make within the next 12-18 months!

OFCOM also want to try and establish how network coverage should be extended in the countryside and areas with poor network coverage, how tariffs (especially on pay as you go) can be improved and make it easier for new networks to set-up and compete with the big boys. There’s also some talk of charging people to receive calls, and talk of stopping networks charging each other to connect calls (hopefully bringing down the price of cross-network calls). I’m sure they’d like to hear from you about cashback deals and mis-selling in this consulation too, so make sure you mention it.

OFCOM have also set-up a blog in order to keep people up-to-date during the consulation: OFCOM Mobile Phone Blog

Best of luck with your responses. Let’s hope that they can make a difference!
ducky

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 has a rumoured release date of mid-September. This, in my opinion, is going to be a good iPhone competitior! I’m pretty excited about that and for that reason, I am going to share with you the advert - just to whet your appetite - even if the advert has been out since February this year…

connect2me on HotUKDeals has spotted that 3 Mobile, or “Three” or whatever you want to call them, are introducing a new fee to their contract customers: a £1 monthly charge for a paper bill. As this condition isn’t in their T&Cs it’s a good way of getting out of your contract early, and should allow you to keep the phone too!!

All you need to do is write to Three at the below address:

3 Customer services
Hutchison 3G UK Ltd
PO Box 333
Glasgow
G2 9AG

Their website states that you can call them to cancel, but in this case I suggest that you do it in writing!

All you need to do is write to them BEFORE September 20th 2008 explaining that due to the new term being added to the contract (the £1 paper bill), which wasn’t a term of the contract when you signed up.

Tell them that as a result of this, you wish to cancel your contract as of October 20th 2008.

Important things:

1. Send recorded delivery, for proof that they’ve got it.
2. Photocopy you letter (if handwritten) or print a second copy (if printed) and keep this safe.

Ooh, a visitor! Welcome to the new site and welcome - in particular - to the “News” section, which is pretty much a dressed-up blog.

In this area I hope to post news of changes in the mobile world, including exciting information about new phones, information about retailers, information about the current mobile phone climate (such as OFCOM news), whether any new “cancel your contract early” loopholes have appeared and generally anything else that is going on.

If you see anything on the interweb that you think that I should report on then drop me a line.